Wisconsin blanks Hawaii

MADISON, Wis. >> In the gloom of a 28-0 football loss to 22nd-ranked Wisconsin, Hawaii coach Norm Chow exhaled, then offered," I thought we had a shot. I really did."

But the Badgers ran, ran and then ran away to their 35th consecutive nonconference victory at Camp Randall Stadium.

At home, Wisconsin’s joint is jumping, with red-clad students hopping to House of Pain’s "Jump Around" and the Badgers thump-thump-thumping with a power running game. The Badgers rolled up 512 yards, including 335 on the ground. Star running back Corey Clement was out because of a sports hernia, but Taiwan Deal rushed for 147 yards and two touchdowns and Dare Ogunbowale added 85 yards and a 9-yard score.

"They kind of handled us up front a little bit," Chow said.

Down 14-0, the Rainbow Warriors had an opportunity to tug-o-war momentum in the second half when they advanced to the Wisconsin 1 on a 15-yard bullet from Max Wittek to wideout Quinton Pedroza. But before the Warriors could summon their jumbo formation, a yellow flag was airborne. Right guard Dejon Allen was assessed a personal foul, retreating the Warriors to the 16.

Allen disagreed with the call, but accepted responsibility, saying, "It was all my fault."

After Wittek was sacked for a 5-yard loss, wideout Makoa Camanse-Stevens got the ball, then misfired to Wittek. A split-second later, safety Tanner McEvoy struck Wittek high.

"I thought it was a late hit," Chow said, an infraction that would have come with an automatic 15-yard penalty and ejection. But the officials reviewed video of the play, reversed it, and the penalty and ejection were rescinded.

"If you call targeting, it’s all or nothing," Chow said.

It became zip when a holding penalty and an incomplete pass preceded Rigo Sanchez’s missed field goal from 49 yards.

"That’s the game right there," offensive coordinator Don Bailey said of the inability to score a touchdown. "When you’re playing a team like that, you have to keep clawing and scratching and staying in the game and being smart. You’ve got to be able to play smart at the time."

There were other key plays that went against the Warriors. On the Badgers’ final drive of the first half, quarterback Joel Stave threw wide and low toward a receiver. Cornerback Nick Nelson tried to make a diving interception. Instead, the ball ricocheted off Nelson to wideout Alex Erickson for a 12-yard gain.

Two plays later, Stave’s pass into the left corner of the end zone struck cornerback Jalen Rogers, who had turned to make a play. Instead, Rogers was called for pass interference, the ball was moved to the 2, from where Deal rushed for his second touchdown and a 14-0 lead with eight seconds remaining in the half.

Those incidents were magnified as the Badgers hogged the pigskin. They controlled the ball for 39 minutes, 47 seconds. Six of their 10 drives were eight plays or longer. They averaged 5.0 yards per first-down rush.

The Badgers’ average starting offensive lineman is 6 feet 5 and 214 pounds. They then added bulk with the "cone" formation, a reverse wishbone, in which two fullbacks align a yard behind the offensive tackles. Only eight of the 53 designed running plays were to the perimeter.

"They had a little scheme that was pretty damn good," UH defensive coordinator Tom Mason said. "I thought they wore us down."

The scheme’s uniqueness is difficult to defend in games and simulate in practices.

"They had a good plan," Mason said. "Give them credit."

Of the Badgers’ 79 offensive plays, only 10 were on third down.

"They were animals," UH defensive end Luke Shawley said of the Badgers’ power game. "Having said that, most of their longer runs were mistakes on our part. I don’t feel they were better athletes than us necessarily. They were big guys, but they capitalized on our mistakes very well. On the bright side, that’s something we can fix."

Indeed, Mason, who relies on blitzes out of the fire-zone coverages, said he will work on ways to slow the rush.

"We haven’t done a good job of defending the run," Mason said. "That’s on me as a coordinator. It’s probably my schemes more than anything. We need to do some different things. I have to move these guys around. We’re not wired for 22 (two backs, two tight ends) or 23 (two backs, three tight ends) personnel or those kinds of things. We’ll go back and look at some things. We’ll put in some things that will help us."

The Warriors are also searching for an offensive rhythm. Wittek, under heavy pressure, was 15-for-32 for 189 yards. Running back Paul Harris was banged up and did not play in the second half, exiting with 22 rushing yards on six carries. Diocemy Saint Juste, who did not play in the previous three games because of a hamstring injury, was not used on Saturday night.

Similar to a loss to another Big Ten opponent, Ohio State two weeks ago, the Warriors did not take advantage of their limited opportunities.

"Anytime you lose, most likely you left a lot out there," said Wittek, emphasizing the Warriors need to focus "on things we can control" and not "worry about controversial calls, this or that. We need to take care of our game play so things like that shouldn’t matter."

After four nonconference games to open the season, the Warriors, now 2-2, play a Mountain West Conference game at Boise State next week.

"I told (the players) after the game, how we respond now will be critical," Chow said.

FIRST PERIOD

Wisconsin

>> Score: Taiwan Deal 2 run. Rafael Gaglianone kick.

>> Drive: 16 plays, 97 yards, 8:09 elapsed time. Time: 4:27. Score: Wisconsin 7, UH 0

SECOND PERIOD

Wisconsin

>> Score: Deal 2 run. Gaglianone kick.

>> Drive: 9 plays, 73 yards, 4:38 elapsed time. Time: 0:38. Score: Wisconsin 14, UH 0

THIRD PERIOD

Wisconsin

>> Score: Austin Traylor 12 pass from Joel Stave. Gaglianone kick.

>> Drive: 11 plays, 80 yards, 5:33 elapsed time. Time: 0:53. Score: Wisconsin 21, UH 0

FOURTH PERIOD

Wisconsin

>> Score: Dare Ogunbowale 9 run. Gaglianone kick. 

>> Drive: 8 plays, 67 yards, 4:01 elapsed time. Time: 7:29. Score: Wisconsin 28, UH 0

TEAM STATISTICS 

INDIVIDUAL STATS

DEFENSIVE STATISTICS

TACKLES FOR LOSS-YARDS: UH—Kennedy Tulimasealii 1-8, Nick Nelson 0.5-1, Lance Williams 0.5-0. Wisconsin—Joe Schobert 2-13, Leon Jacobs 1-1, Michael Caputo 0.5-5, Vince Biegel 0.5-5. 

SACKS-YARDS: UH—Kennedy Tulimasealii 1-8. Wisconsin—Joe Schobert 2-13, Michael Caputo 0.5-5, Vince Biegel 0.5-5.

INTERCEPTIONS: UH—none. Wisconsin—none.

kick blocked: UH—none. Wisconsin—none.

quarterback hurries: UH—none. Wisconsin—TJ Edwards.